XCOM: Beyond Earth
by Jasina
Summary: This one is big. It's my vision of the universe after XCOM defeated the invaders in Enemy Unknown. You should be aware of the fact that this story, most likely, will NOT be updated on regular basis and it can take a VERY LONG time in between chapters ( sorry, it's just how I write, sometimes I need time to spring some new ideas). You have been warned.
1. Prologue: Recollection of the Past

Prologue

Recollection of the Past

The year is 2115 – it has been almost one hundred years since the end of the Great Conflict. It was in 2015 that Earth's inhabitants learned that they are not alone in the universe. The initial contact with an alien life forms went south pretty fast. The Coalition claims that aliens took the first shoot as they rampaged through one of districts in Hamburg, Germany. True or not that doesn't matter now. The armies of an earthling countries were not able to effectively defend themselves in a long run and that's why The Council of Nations was created within UN.

Every member of the Council was founding a top secret, para-military organization – XCOM. The Earth's finest warriors, scientists and engineers. Their goal was simple, but far from easy – Survive, Adapt, Win. And they held the line. After almost three year of long and brutal war finest of XCOM soldiers defeated the invaders, known only as The Ethereal Collective, during an event that is now called The Battle of a Temple Ship. After three years humanity could finally start a long process of rebuilding. The technology XCOM had recovered and developed during the Great Conflict had greatly improved a quality of life and incredible discovery of elerium on Earth provided an environment safe and powerful source of energy. But the XCOM wasn't all sunshine and bunnies.

It was in 2020 – the darkest chapter in the history of XCOM – a group of soldiers that had joined the project during the last days of Great Conflict rebelled, dreaming of a world domination. Rebels managed to kill The Commander, but their plan has been turned into dust, as General Peter Van Doorn assumed the command and crushed the rebelion. It was not long until XCOM learned the origin of those rebels - remnants of EXALT. EXALT was an organization probably as old as the world itself and would it be revealed it would quickly size its rightful place in the pantheon of a conspiracy theories. It was also an only organization that openly opposed XCOM during The Great Conflict… well maybe "openly" is not a good word. XCOM soldiers refer to that period of the Great Conflict as "A Shadow War" based on espionage and quick raids.

When XCOM finally managed to pinpoint location of EXALT HQ – a skyscraper in the downtown area of Mexico City - Their teams were quickly dispatched and after short and bloody battle EXALT was no more… or that's what XCOM thought anyway. When the situation was back under control General Van Doorn stepped down from the command only to be elected the new commander of XCOM shortly after that. These days some people tend to say that XCOM is Van Doorns family company. In 2050 humanity finally managed to cross the Final Frontier and began a conquest of space. Human colonies were springing across the space and they have created The Coalition of Human Worlds. Some people want to believe that the threat from the Collective had been eradicated during The Battle of a Temple Ship, but others are not so shortsighted. Today XCOM is a Vanguard of Humanity, scouting planets for potential colonies and remaining ever vigilant, awaiting the return of The Collective. Being part of this organization is now one of the greatest honours soldier can achive. They are here, they are waiting.

In peace Vigilance, in war Victory, in death Sacrifice.

Vigilo Confido


	2. Chapter 1: Aurora Drop

Chapter One: Aurora Drop

5th of April 2115

Gagarin Cluster

XSS Vigilance

* * *

A dim light coming from the corridor slowly lit up the cabin with four bunks in it, one of them occupied by a black woman in her late twenties with black hair, all wrapped in sheets. When light came up to her face she let out a grunt.

"Hey wake up." A woman standing in the door was dressed in a standard issue BDU pants and a shirt. "Come on Gloria, get your lazy ass out of bed."

"M… Monica?" A woman in the bed slowly pushed herself up from bed trying to face her friend standing in the doorway. "You know what hour it is right?"

"Not really, but I guess you're going to tell me." Monica replied with a jovial voice.

Gloria picked up her PDA from a nightstand next to her bed and brought it to life with a few taps.

"Four in the morning… what is wrong with you woman?" Gloria asked as she tried to suppress a yawn. "You better have a damn good reason for wakening me up this early."

"No, not really, but LT has one." White woman said with innocent voice. "We're almost there so he called a squad leaders meeting."

As if universe wanted to confirm Monica's words a slight thump run through the ship, a clear sign that it started deceleration from the FTL speed.

"You're enjoying it don't you." Gloria said, more stating than asking. "Fine just give me a minute, I'm not going to go on briefing only in my undies."

"Aw… guys are going to be so disappointed, how can you taunt them like that?" A smile was present on Monica's face as every time she made a joke.

"In your dreams girl, in your dreams." Gloria said as she began to dress herself, putting her BDU pants and shirt on, collecting her hair into a ponytail and putting her blue beret with XCOM sign on the front. She slotted her PDA into a special bracelet on her wrist, well out of fashion in the civilian sector. Thing is, guys in R&D have put some serious work into this system and what was considered obsolete by most civilians have become one of the most advanced piece of tech in the military – holographic display, comm system, portable scanner – stuff that was considered science fiction in the 21st century. Finally she was ready to leave and took a step into the corridor where Monica was waiting for her.

Gloria could finally see her friend in the light of the corridor lamps. Short blonde hair, late twenties, white skin, two friends served together since day one. Together they joined the military, together they got recommendation for service in XCOM.

"So… any news from Earth?" Monica asked as the two walked towards the elevator that would take them to the upper deck and the briefing room.

"Not really." Gloria replied. "Another world about to be colonized, some political bullshit. You know, the usual stuff."

"Seriously nothing?" Monica's voice was filled with disappointment. "It's so boring, I want to get some action. Things were way more interesting in our old unit don't you think?"

"Interesting? You really consider getting shot an interesting thing?" Gloria asked as she was checking her mail. "I can't believe that people whine about time zones on Earth."

"What?"

"I mean yeah it can be confusing back there, but here in space and colonies it's out right pain in the ass."

"You really don't have bigger problems?" Monica asked surprised as they stepped into the elevator.

"And I hear that from a woman who just whined about lack of bullets flying around."

Finally the women reached their destination. The briefing room was filled with seats around a single table with a holographic display in the middle. This time only four people were present, counting the new arrivals. A older man with a brown hair turned to face the two women.

"Ah, sergeants Van Doorn and Henderson. What took you so long?" He asked.

"I'm sorry sir." Monica replied. "I had to drag her lazy ass out of bed myself."

Lieutenant moved his eyes to Gloria, asking the same question.

"Yes sir, it's true." She replied with a tone of embarrassment in her voice. Gloria shouldn't oversleep the briefing and if not for Monica, she would be still in bed.

"Well, with that out of the way we can finally start the actual briefing." He tapped the table a few times and the display came to life showing a planet. "This is Aurora, a jungle world with an unknown wildlife, breathable atmosphere. Coalition flagged it as potential colony. Our job is simple – go down there, secure a place for a campsite and then protect the survey team. Give them time to run test, see if it's really worth colonizing, I'm sure you all know the drill by now. Questions?"

"You said unknown wildlife. Any specifics?" Asked so far silent Stg. Yasunow.

"Thermal scans indicates a lot of activity down there, but the jungle is just too thick to get any precise readings. There may be slight problems with ground-to-space comms."

"Noted sir." Russian squad leader was talkative as always.

"Where is our LZ?" Gloria asked looking at the magnified satellite image. "I can't see any place with enough free space for Skyranger to land."

"That's true sergeant, you will be dropped here." LT pointed at the place when jungle seemed to be the thinnest. "When you'll be on the ground you will have to use explosives to make an LZ and a place for a camp."

"Are we going to play lumberjacks sir?" Monica asked with a smile on her face.

"Well, when you put it that way, yes. So to sum it up, you go in, make an LZ, establish and sweep the perimeter and then give us all clear to send survey teams along with materials and workers to build a small outpost. After that we'll see." The plan that LT presented was solid enough, all within standard procedures, well maybe except cutting trees for LZ, but things like that occur from time to time. "You have a couple of hours before we'll be in position on the orbit. That will be all, dismissed."

Yasunow was first to leave the room, going off to God knows where, to do God knows what. Nobody could get a hang on a Russian sergeant and figure him out, but in combat situations everybody wanted him close by, as he always got the job done… at least on combat simulators. Only problem is that combat sims can't really prepare for a really fight, but he was the first to admit it.

"I better go brief my team." Monica said as she walked toward the elevator. "And you better do the same because I am not going to be babysitting you again if you fall asleep."

"Very funny girl." Gloria replied and raised her comm. "Martinez, assemble the team in the briefing room D12. We have a job to do."

"Si Sargento." A Spanish voice from the comm answered.

* * *

Briefing Room D12 was arranged much like the main one, the only difference was smaller amount of chairs. When Gloria pushed the door her squad was already in the room waiting.

"Morning guys." She said as she eyed everyone.

"Morning Sargento." Corporal Martinez answered. He was team's scout and part of assault program. He was also only member of her team that have been genetically modified, after gene therapy he was able to "sense" livening creatures in his vicinity, something that they called "bio-electric skin". His face was one of a seasoned soldier and on his right arm there was a tattoo of Jesus holding assault rifle in one hand, giving sign of peace with the other. "Everybody is present and accounted for ma'am."

"Good, in that case let's get straight to the point shall we?" Gloria said and summarized everything LT have told her. "Questions?"

"Are we going in blind?" asked private Alex Daniels, team's gunner. "Because for me it looks like we're going in blind."

"Don't we always? I'm more concerned about potential problems with communication systems." A woman in the corner shared her thoughts with the rest of the squad, Private Elizabeth O'Brien, team's medic.

"As far as I know only normal communication systems can be disrupted, PSI grid should work just fine." Gloria replied. "But let's hope it won't be that bad. As for your question D… all we know is that the thermal scans are picking up a lot of activity, but nothing major."

"This is bullshit! I signed up to fight, not to babysit some eggheads!"

"Stand down rookie." Martinez said to the squad's newest addition – PFC McCain. "I don't think you understand how it works here…"

"Spear me the lecture grandpa."

"Silence!" Gloria knew she has to stop the fight before it escalates. "I'll take it from here Loco." She said to her corporal.

"Si Sargento."

"And you rookie know that I will not tolerate that sort of behavior in my team, you don't like it, go ask LT for a reassignment, but as long as you're in my team you play by my rules, are we clear?"

"Yes ma'am." McCain muttered an apology and remained silent for the rest of the briefing.

The rest of the briefing went without any more incidents and the team headed down to the armory to get their gear and prepare for drop. Gloria took her standard gear consisting of pulse rifle, faithful laser pistol and Carapace armor in jungle camouflage. Back in the day XCOM soldiers had a large degree of freedom when it comes to slapping their armor with paintjobs but these privileges were severely reduced after an event called "Rookie Rangers Incident" during the Great Conflict. It's not like she would like to step on the battlefield wearing bright pink, but now if soldier wanted to mess around with a paintjob, they had to make a formal request. Gloria took some extra webbing to squeeze more power cells to her pockets – a decision that saved her life more than once during her military career. She looked in the mirror eyeing the armor for potential gaps. A new line of Carapace armor wasn't identical to the ones built during the Great Conflict – a supply of alien alloys went dry a few decades ago, and they have been replaced by "XCOM's alloy mix" as engineers called it half-joke, half-serious. It was only slightly weaker and heavier than the ones made out of actual alien alloys, but Gloria knew it was enough to take a hit or two, worst comes to worst.

In the hangar bay three of the Skyranger class transports waited for teams to pile in. Gloria took a look at her team – Martinez with his sleeveless shirt exposing his tattoo was carrying pulse shotgun, a simple green ball cap on his head, D with his heavy pulsar, Liz and McCain both sporting pulse rifles. Other teams have also assembled and as they were entering, Monica send her the look, as she always did before the mission. This look carried a simple message – See you on the ground sis. Ramp of their Skyranger closed behind her. The transport took off and took its place in formation. As it flew into the Aurora's atmosphere Gloria's comm came to life.

"Coyote teams, this is Overlord. Comm check. Over."

"This is Coyote 1-1, I read you loud and clear Overlord. Over." Gloria confirmed.

"This is Coyote 2-1, loud and clear. Over." Monica reported.

"This is Coyote 3-1, reporting in. Over." A response came from Stg. Yasunow.

Skyranger started hovering above the trees. It's ramp lowered and a ropes came down.


	3. Chapter 2: Breaking Ground

Chapter Two: Breaking Ground

5th of April 2115

Gagarin Cluster

Planet Aurora

* * *

The descent using the rope took no longer than few seconds, but for Gloria it seemed like an eternity. The moment she passed through the line of treetops she suddenly came out in a different world – humming of the Skyranger's elerium jets fall silent as the wave of heat and sounds from the jungle hit her, sounds of what she thought were birds, bugs and other animals.

Her boots finally hit the ground and she took a few steps forward letting go of the rope, grabbing pulse rifle hanging on her hip and assuming defensive position. Juan joined her on the ground, his shotgun covering different direction and the rest of her squad followed. Gloria took a quick glance at her PDA – they were all on the ground within 35 seconds, not bad she thought, but they could do better. Other teams were with them as well.

"McCain start blasting those trees over there, small charges, maximum two per tree. The rest of you hold position."

"Yes ma'am." A response came from everyone at once.

Couple of minutes later a chain of explosions tore up a usual jungle melody and trees fell down, creating a clearing of a considerable size.

"Timber!" A cheerful shout came from Monica as she detonated the last of explosives. "I think we're done here people." She spoke to her comm.

"Yeah pretty much, so who's going on patrol?" Gloria asked.

"I will stay here with my team." Yasunow quickly responded and just like that all slots have been filled.

"Overlord, this is Coyote 1-1, we have secured an LZ, moving to patrol with Coyote 2, Coyote 3 will remain here and guard LZ. How copy? Over."

"This is Overlord, solid copy 1-1, you may proceed. Overlord out."

Twenty minutes later they were deep within the jungle, Martinez on point, occasionally cutting a way through the vegetation with his alloy machete, Gloria one step behind him. The heat really started to be pain in the ass.

Gloria took a quick glance at her PDA linked with a motion tracker. Screen was lit up like a Christmas tree with countless signals emitted by the local wildlife, sound muted couple of minutes after leaving a soon-to-be base camp.

Momentarily Martinez roes his fist in the air and entire team stood still.

"What is it Loco? – Gloria asked as quietly as she was able to."

"Something large." Latino said closing his eyes for a second. "About 300 meters right from our location. And it's closing in on us."

"Defensive positions."

"Oh come on Sarge." McCain said in his ordinal shit-talking manner. "It's probably just a big snake, since when you're such a pussy?"

Gloria let her rifle hang as she turned towards the rookie, ready to make connection between her fist and his face. McCain realized that in time and assumed a defensive stance, but deep down he knew that nothing will save him from woman's fury. Rest of the team stayed as they were, covering all angles until Gloria says otherwise. McCain knew that this time he fucked up big.

Gloria stretched her back like a black panther ready to jump at her victim but something changed. A slight shift only someone with PSI abilities could realize. The next thirty seconds flashed in her head like a movie, speed up ten times.

A strange shapeless blob launched from the bushes with a hissing sound, Martinez fired his shotgun, but whatever it was, it managed to dodge the salvo of red death. In the heartbeat a blob wrapped itself around McCain and Gloria could swear that she heard rookie's bones crack under the pressure. Next second the shape let go of McCain, faster than Gloria could line it up, but Martinez and Daniels this time hit their mark. The Creature let out a hiss of anger and fled into the jungle before they could line up more shots.

O'Brien was the first to move, taking a knee next to squashed pile of meat that was McCain just a seconds ago. She gave Gloria a quick gesture – he's dead.

Gloria opened her comm channel, panic building up inside her.

"This is Coyote 1! We are under attack, enemy position unknown! We've got casualties! Over!" She has lost her cool, screaming in the radio, in the middle of a jungle, voice within her saying: " _Get your shit together girl, you can't lose it now"_. She didn't wait for response. "Liz grab McCain! We're falling back!"

It took them only less than ten minutes to get back to the base camp, Yasunow's and Monica's teams on defensive positions as Gloria and Coyote 1 had bursted out of the jungle and took positions to take on any eventual pursuers.

Skyranger came shortly after. Gloria's comm crackled and she have heard a single most beautiful sentence a man could say, she raveled in joy when a familiar voice of Cpt. Barnes filled her ears.

"This is Pequod. On station at LZ."

* * *

Ramp of the Skyranger was sealed tight, the only thing between the team and a cold emptiness of vacuum, but despite team's presence ship's hold feelt empty. Everybody was staring down at the floor, trying not to look at the squashed sack of meat that once was McCain, his limbs arranged in angles human body is not suppose to reach. Pequod have finally landed in the Vigilance's hangar bay, ramp of the ship opened, medics waiting outside with the stretchers.

O'Brien lifted her eyes on the medics. Her eyes said everything and the medics took the body of McCain, as carefully as they could, placed it on the stretchers and left without saying a word. Team remained still for a few more minutes.

D was the first to break the silence.

"What the fuck was that?!" his hands turned into fists, fury in his voice more than visible. "What the hell happened there?!"

He waited, but no one responded, so he spoke again.

"So that's it then?! You're going to sit here, stare at the floor and say nothing?!"

"And what exactly should we say D?!" Gloria eyed the big man. "Hm? What do you want me to tell you? That it all went to hell? That we've fucked up?! That I've fucked up?"

"Easy there Sargento." Said Martinez. "Nobody says you did something wrong. We had no idea what we are walking into. It was just…" Martinez paused for a while, sighed and continued. " … just bad luck."

"Bad luck?! Is this what I'm going to tell on debriefing?! I'm sorry sir, but the dice just hasn't rolled in our favor?! This is bullshit and you know it Loco!" Gloria wasn't even trying to stay calm, she had to have it out. It was a little surprising – she never really liked McCain, hell, no one liked him and yet here they were, mourning him in a way. Asshole as he was, he was still their teammate.

"That's not what I've meant…"

"Forget it." She dismissed Martinez with a wave of hand. "I just need to have it out, I… you are dismissed." She said and went back to the armory, dropped her gear and back to her room. In there, she bumped into two comm officers she didn't even knew. No wonder, since they worked opposite shifts, but nevertheless she muttered something she wanted to sound like greeting and fell on her bunk.

She would have to write her After Action Report, but later. Right now all she needed was rest. As Gloria was laying on her bunk she started to feel weightless, her mind detached from her body in a way.

She was in her room on the Vigilance, but in the same time she was in a small cabin in the mountains, heavy furniture made of wood, a picture of her with her parents, taken when she was eighteen, a window showing her a blue-purple nebula, twinkling with countless stars hidden in it.

She never really understood the state she was in, whenever she went into her Inner Sanctum, deep within her mind. Time flew differently here than it did in the real world – she could spend hours in here, but it would be only a minutes in the real world. And she fell asleep on the couch as she was looking at the nebula.

* * *

It was dark, only indication of a human presence was a sound of a heavy military boots on a concrete. Then a figure emerged from the corner, his flashlight lightening up the corridor. It was Specialist Majewski on his patrol, armed with a standard issue pulse rifle every blue shirt, as XCOM staff called base security personnel because of their bright blue uniforms, carried. Majewski could never understood why he, or anyone really, needed to patrol these tunnels, especially since they were basically rigged with motion sensors, but it wasn't his job to question it.

Still this place gave him a creeps every single time. It was a whole different world down here and even despite the fact that he knew he's technically still in Poland, he couldn't get rid of a feeling that he's somewhere where no man should be. Patrolling these tunnels always made him feel uneasy, as if he was walking through the insides of a long dead giant. He saw a writing on the wall, time made it impossible to decipher, but letters in bold print were still easily recognizable as german.

This "Riese Complex" was adequately named as "Riese" meant "Giant" in german. And here it was – a massive web of tunnels build by Nazis, on the blood of their slaves, all to feed Hitler's megalomania, a place where he could build his Wunderwaffe and bring both Allies and Soviets to their knees. When Earth came under attack from alien invaders this place was chosen to house the base of Humanity's Last Hope.

Before the Great Conflict this complex was mainly sealed off, partially by Nazis themselves as they've flooded the tunnels when Red Army caught up to them and then by Soviets, who collapsed some of the access tunnels, but a certain people got this place back up and running in no time. Majewski was not the only one feeling uneasy here – some PSI sensitive personnel claimed that they have heard voices, screams that have sunken into the concrete, echoes of suffering prisoners that build these corridors.

Majewski have finally finished his patrol route and headed back to the elevator. The room with the elevator was fortified with sand bags, that could as well be over a hundred years old, covering Automated Gauss machine guns covering the corridor leading to it.

As he stepped into the lift and saw it's door shut behind him, Majewski finally felt "disconnected" from the remains of the giant. When elevator finally stopped on the lower levels and opened, he was in a whole different world… again. Corridors carved through rocks, well lit up by the lamps in floor and on the ceiling, occasional banner on the wall. This was XCOM HQ on Earth, this is where it all started.

This is the place outside alien reach… or it used to be. During the Great Conflict aliens somehow managed to find it and launched a tremendous assault with a sole purpose – bring XCOM down. But brave men and women, scientists and engineers, soldiers and blue shirts, they have held the line. And that failed attempt? It only made them angry.

To this day everyone who fell that day earned his or her place on the memory wall and in the memories of those who survived. In here you could probably hear every language used my man – from Polish through English, German, Russian, French to Chinese, Japanese, Afrikaans. Men and women from all around the globe, all working towards protecting humanity. Majewski had set sail on a mess.

* * *

The office was lit only by a single desk lamp. A bald man in the simple XCOM uniform was standing with his back turned toward the door, looking at a holographic display on the wall. Suddenly someone knocked at the door.

"Enter."

A black haired, asian woman entered the room and saluted.

"Commander."

"Yes Mei? What is the matter?"

"Reports from the Vigilance just came in, sir." She said, her voice uneasy and Commander felt that. That could mean only one thing – bad news.

"That quick? I though they have just reported reaching the Gagarin Cluster." He asked taking a drag from his cigar. "They either work really fast, or they are cheating in the reports. So what is it? You wouldn't came to me, if it wasn't important."

"The ground forces from the Vigilance came under attack sir. They have taken casualties."

Commander froze for a second then took another drag from cigar.

"Who?"

"PFC McCain. He was serving in Coyote 1…" She paused for a moment. "Your daughter's squad, sir."

"And who were they attacked by?"

"We don't know sir. Reports from Coyote 1 are… sketchy at best, our intel teams are analyzing their uniform cam feeds."

"Alright, give me a shout when we know anything new. For now you are dismissed."

"Yes Commander."

Commander was again alone in his office looking at the display on the wall. He had a feeling it was something more than wildlife. Something was not right here. He knew that he had to get to the bottom of this. This mysterious attack just convinced him that something is going on. Maybe the Collective is back, maybe they're not, but he wouldn't take any chances. He opened a comm channel to the Fleet Commander.

"Ann."

"Ian. It has been a while old friend." A familiar voice came out of the comm. Fleet Commander Anna Calvert. "What's up?"

"I need you to move part of your Battle Fleet, we may have a situation."

"Battle Fleet? Ian you know I barely have any ships, right? And the ones I have are mostly a scout ships and some transporters. Calling it a Battle Fleet may made it sound tough, but it won't give it any more firepower."

"I know, but we need someone there, should things go wrong."

"That bad, huh?"

"That bad."

* * *

In the deep space a enormous ship came to life. It lit up and started moving. Inside thousands of minds began to act. It has been set into motion. These minds were determined to do whatever it takes. The Leviathan has been awaken. And it was ready for war.


	4. Chapter 3: Touchdown

Chapter Three: Touchdown

7th of April 2115

Gagarin Cluster

Planet Aurora

* * *

Two days. It has been two days since the mysterious attack. XCOM soldiers were sweeping the jungle top to bottom, but to little effect so far… well to no effect truth be told. Gloria led her squad through a jungle to the observation point on a cliff.

"Core temperature slightly above average". A little robotic voice said. Hover SHIV acting as temporary replacement for McCain until they could get some more boots on the ground.

"Do we really need to bring it with us?" Asked Daniels. "This voice is kind of creepy."

"I didn't really asked for it either." Gloria said. "But the truth is we need some extra firepower, so just bear with it for a while."

"We're here people." The sound of Martinez's voice cut the talk short. As they exited the thick jungle, they found themselves on a cliff overlooking the entire valley down below. The valley was huge, lush with trees and cut in half by a river. It was a sunny day without a single cloud in sight.

"Wow. Now that's a view." Said Elizabeth.

"Pretty as a painting indeed… alright people, 5 minutes and we're moving out." Gloria raised her comm. "Overlord, this is Coyote 1. We've reached OP Yankee. Over."

Glorias comm crackled giving nothing but static.

"That's strange. Everybody be on alert." She said as she attempted to raise the command again. "Overlord, this is Coyote 1. We've reached OP Yankee. Over."

Second try was just as successful as the first one.

"I'm going to try and contact their PSI comm guy." Gloria said as she closed her eyes and attempted to reach her target back at the camp. She built a visual layer around herself, an old phone on a coffee table. She picked up the receiver and punched in the number. After a brief moment the third signal passed and she spoke with her inner voice. "Hallo? Can you hear me Powell? This is Gloria, call sign Coyote 1-1. We're at OP Yankee, but I can't raise anyone, what is happening? Over."

"Gloria? This is Powell I can hear you. We have no idea, the comms just went dark. Hell not only comms, we've lost our scanners and we can't even raise Vigilance. We're blind. Hold position and wait for further instructions. Over."

"Solid copy Powell. Coyote 1 out."

As Gloria put down the receiver the world around her changed – the phone was gone, coffee table was gone, the darkness around her was gone. She came back to the real world and immediately spotted that something is off, something has changed. The cliff she was standing on was covered in shadow.

"My God… - O'Brien managed to say just that."

"Oh shit!" Gloria looked up and saw what there was to see. And she knew that there is no need for words right now.

* * *

The bridge of Vigilance was quiet. Captain sitting in his chair, pilots and navigators doing their jobs. However the silence shattered in a mere seconds.

"We have unidentified contact coming out of FTL speed… looks like a cruiser… it's not broadcasting ID signal." One of the navigators reported.

"Hail him! This is Ernest Vauclair, Captain of XSS Vigilance. This area is restricted, ID yourself or you will face the consequences."

Silence. Nothing came out of the ship.

"Captain! We just lost contact with our forces on the planet. I can't raise anyone down there."

"What the hell is going on in here?! Unidentified ship! ID yourself or we will use lethal force!"

"The cruiser changed course… on interception trajectory, I'm detecting massive energy build up… looks like he's powering up his weapons." The navigator continued.

"Fine! You asked for this!" Captain said as he cut connection with the mysterious ship and spoke to an intercom. "Everyone to the battle stations. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill."

"Laser batteries ready sir! Shields are operating at 100% capacity… cruiser is opening fire!"

"Steady!"

Realization came crashing down on them like a wrecking ball. The moment the orange beam hit their shields they understood. The captain, pilots, navigators… the entire crew understood. But it was too late. Impact came shaking the entire ship knocking people off their feet. The ship's captain was the first back on his feet.

"Damage report!"

"They broke our shields!" One of the navigators said, her voice filled with panic. "We have fires on a crew deck! Decompression in the cargo hold! Half of the systems is offline!"

"Full force forward! Open fire!"

The Vigilance's retaliation salvo aimed true hitting the cruiser. As the beams hit the hull of enemy's ship, captain's display was flooded with status reports. Suddenly the voice of ship's AI cut in.

"Warning. Catastrophic damage in: Crew Deck. Loss of atmosphere in: Crew Deck, Cargo Hold. Hull integrity at 75%."

Another salvo form the cruiser came hitting its mark. Another shot, another shock.

"Warning. Loss of atmosphere in: Crew Deck, Cargo Hold, Engine Room. Sensors in Engine Room inaccessible. Engines failing. Hull integrity at 47%. Evacuation recommended."

Ernest Vauclair took a long breath before speaking to the intercom.

"This is captain. Abandon ship. I repeat, abandon ship. Everyone who values his life into the escape pods now! Get the wounded off the ship first. It was an honor serving with you… Captain out." He looked at one of his pilots and said. "Dominique, get to the pods."

"While you do what?! Go down with the ship?!"

"In a manner of speaking." He placed a hand on Dominique's shoulder. "Go! Someone has to take care of these people… besides they took out half of our pods, there's simply not enough room for everyone." Though the situation was dire the captain's voice was calm. Dominique looked at the captain's eyes and saw it. Acceptation. Then she understood. Captain knew he won't walk out of here alive. He already made his decision.

"I'll see you on the ground, sir." She said, as she left her chair and disappeared into a corridor.

"I hope so girl… I sure hope so. AI, initiate override. Manual flight controls… let's see if I still have it in me."

Vigilance began its descend. Its final flight. Holo displays were all filled with various warnings, but captain paid no attention to them. Not anymore.

"Warning. Current speed is above recommended value for orbital descend. Reduction of speed is recommended." Ship's AI continued her tirade. Pointlessly, relentlessly as the ship continued its fiery descend. "Warning. Atmosphere reached, catastrophic heat levels detected…"

"Brace for impact!" Captain Ernest Vauclair shouted into the intercom in the last, desperate effort.

* * *

Shock and awe. Two words that precisely summed up Gloria's feelings right now. Watching as Vigilance comes down in flames right before her very eyes. She snapped form it just in time.

"Hit the deck!" She shouted, as she fell to the ground, her teammates did the same. Shockwave came just a few seconds later. Trees were breaking like the matches, some of them even went flying. Thunderous sound filled the air. When the air cleared, once beautiful landscape had a new element.

"Everyone OK?" Gloria asked as she brought herself from the ground.

"I'm OK!" Daniels reported.

"The hell just happened lads?" O'Brien asked.

"I'm getting too old for this." Martinez said.

Gloria surveyed the landscape once again. This time it was way more fiery with a enormous wreckage of vigilance in the middle of the valley. Then she saw it, as did others. About a dozen of ships flew over their heads heading towards the crash site. All similar in design – circular shapes of various sizes. Gloria immediately established connection with Powell. This time there was no phone on a coffee table, no time for visualization, just crude, direct connection.

"Powell, this is Van Doorn. Vigilance just hit the ground! Multiple air contacts converging on its location! I'm moving in to secure the crash site! Requesting reinforcements! Van Doorn out!" She cut the connection without waiting on Powell's response. "Alright people we have to get to the crash site and locate the survivors before they do! Double time!"

* * *

"I don't understand what the fuss is about."

"Commander Van Doorn." The image of a poorly lit bald man filled the holographic display in commander's office. "You should have informed us about relocation of XCOM's fleet. You know how much Council dislikes being out of the loop."

"We're not talking about relocation of an entire fleet, I just felt that Drakken will be more useful somewhere else. You put me in charge of this project, so you could at least show a little bit of trust."

"The Council never doubt your judgment. Your motives are a subject of our concern."

"My motives?" Ian asked as he took another drag from his cigar. "I'm not sure if I follow."

"Please commander. We both now that the only reason you send that frigate to Gagarin Cluster was your daughter."

"Now that's just…"

Ian's response was interrupted by Mei's intrusion into his office.

"Commander, we have a problem!"

"Can't this wait Mei? Can't you see am in the middle of an important conversation?" Ian said pointing on his display.

" No!" The Asian's voice was demanding. "We've just lost contact with the Gagarin Cluster! Vigilance and Base Camp are not responding!"

"How long before Drakken arrives on site?"

"An hour, maybe two."

"Still think that's just about my daughter?" Commander asked Council's spokesman.

* * *

Jungle was never an easy environment to fight into. But now Aurora's jungle looked like a victim of angry typhoon. Trees broken like matches… and some of these matches were on fire.

"Come on people! We're almost there." Gloria shouted as her team made its way through labyrinth of broken trees and walls of fire. The air contact they sighted from the cliff left shortly afterwards. Vigilance's wreckage was now towering over them. Seems like it survived the impact much better than Gloria expected.

"The fire is spreading!" Martinez said. "We have to move fast or it'll catch us!"

Then a defiant roar pierced the air. Something angry. Very angry.

"What the hell was that?!" Daniels asked as he jumped over another log. Despite the fact that he was carrying the biggest gun in the team, he had no trouble keeping up the pace.

The smoke surrounding the crash site cleared a bit and they saw what was happening. They saw a literal lightshow. Bursts of green energy going towards the wreckage and unmistakable sounds of gauss rifle fire. Whoever was firing that rifle was fighting for his life.

As they got closer four large figures emerged from the smoke. Four big chunks of meat locked in green armor. They were carrying plasma rifles and keep shooting at defenders cowering behind chunks of scrap metal and broken trees. They never saw Gloria and her team coming.

It was over within seconds. Gloria and her team struck true. Martinez charged one while it was changing a power cell. It saw him, but Martinez already jumped towards it with his alloy blade raised. Daniels unloaded the autolaser's power cell into creatures back letting his six-barreled killing machine do its job. Gloria and Elizabeth tagged the other one. The last creature managed to turn around just in time to catch a butt of Martinez's scatter laser and some laser beams to the face. "Cease fire! Friendlies coming in!"

"Finally! Took your sweet bloody time, haven't you?"

As Gloria brought her team to defenders stations they saw how bad the situation must have been. A blonde woman in gray jumpsuit and two guys that barely knew how to hold a gun. The woman seemed to have been calling the shots.

"Are you ok? Who's in charge here?" Gloria asked in hope of getting some semblance of order into this chaos.

"That would be me." Blonde woman said. "Lieutenant Annika Hansen. And yeah I'm ok. A few scrapes and burns, and I think I broke a rib during a crash... couple of them in fact."

"What the hell were those things?" One of the engineers asked.

"They wear green so they're probably Leprechauns, right Liz?" Daniels inquired with a joke. "If they're Leprechauns then where's the gold mate?" The Irish medic picked up a joke. "Are you crazy?" Engineer asked with a terrified expression on his face.

"Guys stop. Those engineers are terrified enough as it is." Gloria said. "But judging by their appearance I guess those are Mutons."

"Mutons? Back from the times of the Great Conflict? But that would mean… that the xenos are back. They destroyed our ship."

"Well it wasn't a Santa's sleigh for sure." Hansen said then turned to Gloria. "As for you, we could use some help."

"Whatever you say LT."

"I need to get to the armory. We managed to hold them off, even if just barely. But we can't let them take control of the armory."

"Lead the way ma'am."

"Hey! You can't just leave us here!" One of the engineers yelled as Gloria and her squad prepared to move. "What if these things come back?"

Gloria looked at her team and then back at the engineers.

"You know how to operate a SHIV?"

"SHIV?"

"Super Heavy Infantry Vehicle? You know, that little hovering drone with a big laser gun mounted on it?" Daniels said pointing at the hover SHIV that managed to finally catch up with them. "You know how to handle it right?"

"Yeah, yeah I know how to operate it."

"Then take it." Gloria tapped a few times on her PDA transferring drone's control to the engineers. "Alright LT, which way to the armory?"

"Follow me."


	5. Chapter 4: Iron Wrath

Chapter Four: Iron Wrath

7th of April 2115

Gagarin Cluster

Planet Aurora

* * *

As Gloria and her team made their way through devastated hallways of Vigilance one thing became apparent to her – there was something odd about LT Hansen. Gloria couldn't put her finger on it, but for her it was clear that she's… different somehow. She was wearing standard issue XCOM jumpsuit but the symbol on the chest didn't match. It was a regular XCOM shield, but instead of an X within it, it had a skull with something looking like a shockwave under it. Gloria was sure that she have seen that symbol before, but couldn't recall where. There was also that weird… calculation? Some sort of mechanic precision in the way Annika moved through the corridors, as if she had memorized every inch of the ship. They were nearing an intersection when LT Hansen raised her hand.

"Footsteps."

Gloria closed her eyes for a second and then shouted. "Check your fire, friendlies coming through!"

"What are you…" Annika said but stopped when she saw a group of five armed people walking through. They stopped and looked at her. "Lieutenant Hansen. Captain send us on your position."

"It's a bit late for that but whatever. Better get your asses there before these two manage to get themselves killed." No doubt she was referring to the engineers they left outside. "While you're here, what's the situation in the armory?"

"It's a warzone ma'am. Lots of gunfire coming from there, not many people coming out. The quartermaster had a squad with him, but there's no telling how are they until someone's going to check on them."

"Alright." She said and looked back at Gloria. "Let's move."

They moved through corridors following Annika's lead for a while now and the sound of gunfire was getting louder with every step.

"How did you know?"

"Hm?" Gloria asked a bit lost in thoughts.

"How did you know they were friendlies?"

"I just… I don't know… felt it? That kind of stuff comes with being psionic."

"You're PSI?"

"Yes ma'am."

Finally the doors leading to the armory were in sight… well, what was left of it anyways. The sounds of battle left no doubts as for the situation inside and as they stepped into the enormous room, they got caught right in the crossfire.

* * *

"Inhale, pull, exhale." The silent whisper drowned out by the gunfire and bestial roars of Mutons didn't stop Terrence from repainting his mantra. Every single time when he put a crosshair of his scope on a Mutons head he said these words, as every time he took a shot at anything, be it human, alien or a cardboard target at the firing range. The recoil kicked in as the heavy Gauss Anti-Material Rifle propelled a massive alloy slug into an alien head.

"Inhale, pull, exhale."

The quartermaster did a good job keeping the massive aliens pinned down behind debris with a mag-cannon mounted on the railing and the rest of the fire team send in to help them were also eager to send aliens their regards, preferably at muzzle velocity. Unfortunately most of said fire team was gunned down couple of minutes ago, and even the swarm of alloy slugs provided by the quartermaster's mag-cannon wasn't enough to keep aliens at bay forever, especially with the armory door being reduced to a pile of bent metal. Then suddenly Terrence noticed something as he was loading another slug into the chamber of his rifle. A side entrance to the room they were in. Something moved down there. And a seconds after, a group of five armed individuals joined the battle converging on the quartermaster's position.

* * *

"Suppressing fire!" Gloria shouted as Daniels brought his Gatling laser on point an unleashed a red storm upon Mutons in tandem with quartermaster's mag-cannon. The rest of the team quickly moved on the quartermaster's position and Daniels followed shortly after. A wounded soldier cowering behind a pillar with a pistol addressed LT Hansen.

"Hansen?! Damn, I'm glad to see you." He looked at the woman and continued. "Where are your toys? We could use them, you know?"

"That's why I'm here Jake. Meet Sgt Gloria Van Doorn. You better like her because she's the only reinforcements we're getting for a while."

"Glad to meet you Sarge, excuse me if I won't shake your hand." He said showing her a hand covered in bandages with a bits of burnt skin sticking from under it. "I would prefer if there were more of you but at that moment I can't afford to be picky. Senior Specialist Jake Paddock, Vigilance's marines." A ball of plasma struck the pillar he was hiding behind.

"Larry! I need ammo now!" He shouted at the quartermaster, but he didn't hear him. Instead a Gremlin type drone flew out of the armory and placed a small ammo box next to Jake, another provided Quartermaster with a much larger box, no doubt packed to the brim with heavy alloy slugs. The Gremlin that brought ammo for the wounded soldier stopped mid air and looked at Gloria, did a barrel roll for the reasons unknown and flew back into the armory.

"I think he likes you." Jake said with smile.

"Is that everyone?" Gloria asked.

"No, there's Slingshot too". A particularly loud gunshot echoed through the hall and one of the Mutons fell out of cover with his face torn to pieces. The quartermaster added some slugs from his cannon practically sweeping the alien corpse to the side. "He's our little guardian angel. It would be best, if you patch in on our radio."

"That would make things a lot easier." She said and switched frequency according to Jake's instructions. "Comm check."

"Jake! Could you send me a Gremlin with some ammo? Pack of cigs would be nice too." Said voice in the radio, Gloria assumed that it was Slingshot.

"How about some French fries?"

"Well, since you're paying."

Jake whistled and one of the Gremlins emerged from the armory. "Go fetch some ammo for that asshole above!" He said, trying to make sure that Gremlin will hear him over the gunfire. Gremlin dived back into the armory and popped back out with an ammo box hooked up to its magnetic clamps. Despite Quartermaster's dedication to covering aliens with a swarm of alloy slugs the Mutons were not planning on giving up. Quite the opposite in fact as they intensified their fire. Annika interrupted that interspecies exchange of pleasantries speaking to Jake.

"Do these Gremlins have Suit-up protocols?"

"How am I supposed to know?!"

She looked at Gloria and yelled "Cover me!" and she dived through the wrecked door and disappeared behind it. Then Slingshot said with distressed voice. "Looks like ET called home for the reinforcements!"

The ground trembled as another group of Mutons came charging through the doorway, but they were not alone. What looks like gigantic snakes followed by some kind of robot and a pair of little gray things, one of which had a ridiculously big head came into the mix too.

"The hell are those things?!"

"Just keep shooting!"

The hellish barrage of plasma hit their cover hard enough forcing most of them to duck down. These few minutes felt like eternity until the ground trembled again and they heard Hansen's voice on the radio.

"Clear the doorway!"

* * *

It seems that doors were the only element of the armory that got significantly damaged. Weapons and body armor were still neatly organized on shelf and in lockers, boxes full of ammunition of all kinds were standing on the shelves waiting patiently to be swooped by Gremlins. Annika stopped one of them and asked. "You know how to operate a dressing room?"

The machine made something that could be described as happy beeping and followed Annika to the device in question.

"Well, here goes nothing." She said as she took of her jumpsuit and proceeded to the seat, dressed only in tank top and shorts. As she sat down cables appeared and she connected them to the slots on her arms and legs. Robotic arms covered her in plates of armor. She waited for them to put her helmet on. A loud hiss meant that armor is now hermetically sealed with its own oxygen circuit. She blinked once and brought her HUD. A quick diagnostic message popped on screen:

 _Connected._

 _Reactor Online._

 _Sensors Online._

 _Proceed to weapons check._

With hissing of servomotors Annika brought her now massive metal body forward allowing the robotic arms to install Kinetic Strike Module on her left wrist and then took a massive railgun from a locker nearby. Another set of messages popped up:

 _Weapons Online._

 _All systems nominal._

Annika moved towards the armory door and spoke to the radio. "Clear the doorway!"

* * *

The world felt like the time decided to take it easy and slow down. Gloria barely managed to reposition herself in time when the bent metal that used to be the armory door launched forward and she had to hold onto the railing in order to stay on her feet. A massive chunk of black metal seemed to move on its own jumping over the railing and down into the hellstorm of plasma below. The radio went live again with Annika's voice.

"Bulldozer in the house!"

Then Gloria understood, her mind concentrated on the battle and staying alive managed to get all the pieces together. Annika's strange movements, the signs on her jumpsuit, the sentence on her suit – _'Belletor in Machina'_ – _'The Warrior in the Machine'._ Her voice filled with excitement. Annika was a MEC pilot. The aliens quickly shifted fire to what they recognized as the biggest threat. Annika managed to dodge the fire with ease. Gloria was in awe. She never seen anything so large moving so fast. "But that's not the time to take pictures." She reminded herself as she brought her rifle on one of the Mutons and aimed true. The beast let out a furious roar. Annika began to move back and jumped back up to team's position. One of the snakes launched its tongue trying to grab the quartermaster, but Annika put her massive metal arm between them. She grabbed the alien's tongue and pulled it so hard that creature launched forward and connected with her fist. The alien seemed to have been turned into bag of jelly lying dead on the floor. Slingshot wasted no time, nailing Mutons one by one.

Annika jumped back down seeing one of the snakes charging forward into a better cover and send a heavy alloy slug in its chest yelling "How you like that?!"

Gloria quickly shifted attention to enemy robot which now emanated with a purple glow around it, she took a few shots at it, but the metal construct didn't seem to pay attention to the laser beams hitting it. Gloria could clearly see a trail of purple energy coming from behind a pile of scrap metal and overturned catwalk and was sure that behind it was the bigheaded gray man.

"Slingshot. Can you snipe that gray behind the catwalk?" She asked the strangely silent sniper.

"Negative. No eyes."

"I'll flush him out!" Gloria said closing her eyes. She let her mind free and reached for the gray man. When she made contact she knew that the creature felt her intrusion and was already fighting back. Its mind was strong and it tried to flood Gloria's mind with visions of unspeakable horrors, but her determination proved stronger in the end. She didn't really saw, but more felt the creature taking off from its cover when she felt an alloy slug connecting with the gray man's head. She felt its pain for a brief second before she managed to sever the connection. She wasn't even sure if she really did, or was it just a dying gray's final cry that forced her out. The pain almost knocked her to the ground.

"Fuuuuuck!" She managed to mutter a single word dragging herself back up. The purple glow now disappeared from the enemy robot and the rest of the alien forces were either dead or dying. Despite a feeling of unnatural heat in her ear, she pushed herself to concentrate one more time, creating a ball of purple light in her hand and furiously threw it at the robot. The alien construct lost its balance for a second. But even a second was enough. Annika rammed the robot knocking it to the ground and stepped on its midsection. Alien fired its twin-linked cannons in desperate effort, but heavy alloy slug fired at point blank ended its struggle.

Gloria pushed her back against a pillar and fell to the floor. Elizabeth saw her friend collapse and was by her side in a matter of seconds. She removed something from Gloria's ear and flashed a light in her eyes.

"Her Gloria! Stay with me. How many fingers do you see?" She asked showing three.

"Three. You always show three." Gloria tried to put up a smile. "I feel like someone tried to crack my skull with a jackhammer."

"You know you fried your amp right?" Elizabeth said showing Gloria what looked like an big earplug and a black smoke coming out of it. She threw it away and passed Gloria some pills. "Here, take them."

"Painkillers?"

"Yeah, painkillers."

"I thought you know better than push yourself too hard." Liz said with concerned expression on her face.

"I do. I got hit by a god damn feedback, because someone couldn't wait a few seconds to blast that gray man." Gloria said pointing at where she thought Slingshot had his little sniper nest.

"Friendlies!" Someone shouted from the corridor Gloria and her team used to get here. As the people emerged from the corridor it was clear that they were from the base camp.

"Looks like we missed the party." Even with her head feeling like it's about to explode Gloria recognized Monica's voice.

"Yes, you did." Daniels' words were the last thing Gloria heard before she felt asleep.

* * *

When Gloria finally woke up she wasn't sure where she is at first. It was certainly not base camp and since Vigilance sustained heavy damage its medbay was most likely packed full with injured crew and soldiers. But here, this medbay was half empty. One of the nurses saw that Gloria woke up and came to her.

"Ah Sergeant Van Doorn, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts like hell, but otherwise fine." She said trying to overcome the sensation. "Where am I? How long have I been out?"

"You're on XSS Drakken. You were sleeping for almost a day now." She said. "Your team will no doubt be relieved to know that your fine."

"So, I'm free to go?" A day? She knew that she did some heavy PSI lifting, so to speak, but almost a day?

"If you're feeling good enough, then by all means." Nurse said and began to turn around when she stopped. "Oh, one more thing. When you're ready, go talk with one of the comm specialists. I believe someone wants to talk with you."

"Yeah, thanks. I'll go do that."

Gloria stood up and headed through the doorway. Drakken was bigger than Vigilance was, yet despite much bigger crew it felt… empty somehow. Even despite the fact that traffic was quite big now. On her way to the comm room used by soldiers she passed a lot of people going both ways, delivering reports, soldiers preparing to drop. She finally reached the comm room.

"Sergeant Gloria Van Doorn." She introduced herself to the man behind a desk – comm specialist Taylor, if she were to believe a sticker on his desk.

"Room 3." He said without lifting eyes from his book. She found room 3 without any troubles as they were all marked with a big number on the doors. Soldiers used rooms like these to conduct private conversations with friends, families or anybody really. She closed the door behind her and pushed a button on the console.

"Hi dad."

"Hi kid." The hologram of Ian Van Doorn spoke to her. "Heard you took quite a beating down there. Are you ok?"

"I guess so. Psionic feedback hurts like hell, but I've been through worse. How about you?"

"Me? I've got a war brewing on my hands. After what happened in Gagarin Cluster people want blood. Preferably that green alien blood."

"War?" She said. "Is it really that bad?"

"You've been on the ground. You saw Vigilance being shot down. You fought the first aliens since the end of the Great Conflict. You tell me."

"Point taken. And how's mom?"

"If I know her, she's still the worst nightmare of rookies in Hereford yelling AT them that _'My 18 year old daughter did better than you sissy!'_

Gloria giggled at the sound of that. "Yeah, that sounds like mom." She will never forget that time when her mother took her on a round in SAS training facility at Hereford at her 18th birthday. She never felt so tired in her entire life and yet, it was one of the best memories she had. "We're one crazy family, aren't we?"

"Yes we are." Ian laughed at the memory himself. "Look kid, I've got to go. You take care now ok? Your mom would kill me, if anything happened to you."

"I will. Tell mom I love her when you get the chance."

"I will."

"Bye dad."

* * *

The conference room was full of journalists both from Earth and from the colonies. The sudden press conference announced by Commander's press spokesman was a surprise to everyone, but these journalists knew that they have to get here, come hell or high water, to see why the commander of the most decorated military force in human history has to say.

Ian Van Doorn, or General Commander, as some people insisted on calling him stepped onto the platform and the crowd immediately fell silent.

"Ladies and gentlemen." He started. "Thank you for your time. I gathered you here to report that at about 11 p.m. earth time XCOM soldiers have been engaged in combat by the extraterrestrial forces."

Every journalist in the room stood up yelling questions, as if General had kicked the hornets' nest. He silenced them.

"We have confirmation that forces in question are in fact forces of the Ethereal Collective." He paused for a moment before he said aloud what everyone already knew. "We're at war. Humanity is under attack." And he left the room without answering any questions.


	6. Chapter 5: Within and Without

Chapter Five: Within and Without

The darkness was looming over the horizon. It wasn't a cloud of black smoke, it was something different. It felt like this was not just some darkness. It was The Darkness in its pure form. Darkness all around except the path before her. Torches on the sides were barely giving any light at all. She walked the path, because she had to. She felt that if she'll stop the Darkness will consume her, as it consumed everything around her. She could hear voices coming from beyond, from within the Dark, but she could not understand them. She walked the path for what seemed an eternity for her and yet she was still in the same place. She walked the path for so long now and yet nothing has changed. But finally it seemed as the Darkness begun to back off. She saw a ruins of some sort in the distance… and the she heard the voice. It was nothing like the whispers she heard thus far, it was much louder for one and she could clearly understand it. It spoke with the strange accent but she could clearly understand.

"Perhaps you…"

She turned around, as she felt the voice coming from behind her, but she only saw Darkness. It was getting closer to her, so she pressed onward.

"…you…"

The voice keep talking, as she kept walking forward. Another voice, this time from inside her, the voice she knew, because it was her voice said:

"Any place is better than this, I've got to move forward."

She kept on walking, but the Darkness was not about to cease its pursuit. Finally she could see a walls around her. The light emanating from the torches, as dim as it was, gave reflections that danced on the walls. She pressed onward, but then another wall appeared. The wall in front of her. She was cut off and the Darkness was coming. It almost reached her as she heard the strange voice again.

"Perhaps you… can be our salvation."

And then the Darkness consumed her.

* * *

10th of April 2115

Gagarin Cluster

Drakken's Crew Quarters

* * *

Gloria woke up in cold sweat. She was in her bed, inside the quarter she was assigned to on Drakken. But the dream she had was strange, it was so… real. No, not a dream. A nightmare. She checked her PDA – 3 a.m. Earth time.

"Great. Not that I'm going to catch any more sleep after that anyway." She told herself quietly. The other inhabitants were still asleep, so she decided to go take a shower and well… carry on with the day.

She took a towel and headed to the bathrooms. Fortunately her personal belongings she had aboard Vigilance had been moved down to the base camp before the former was shot down and now were transferred here. The lights were still in the night mode, as it was a common practice to simulate day and night cycle aboard star ships.

Gloria was hoping that she could enjoy the shower alone, but as she made it to the bathrooms she could judge by the sounds that it was not to be. Not that she had a problem with being naked or anything, she was an adult after all and was quite proud of her body. Some of the people she met quite openly considered her to be attractive, even some other women expressed interest in her. Not that it was problematic for her, as troubling as it was for her at first, she came to terms with it. She was tolerant, not that tolerance was anything unusual these days, although as per usual there were exceptions within the society.

Gloria undressed herself and stepped under the shower. She felt the stress being washed away, as hot water run over her body. And yet she could stop thinking about her nightmare, as much as she tried to forget it was still creeping on the boarders of her mind.

"Hi there. I didn't know you're an early riser." She heard someone talking to her. She knew that someone else is here, but when she stepped under the shower she wasn't really paying any attention to the fact. She did recognized the voice nonetheless. It was Annika.

"I'm not." Gloria said as she began to wash herself. "I couldn't sleep." She turned to face her.

It was strange seeing Annika like this. Not because she was naked, but because she was… well… human size again. She was a bit shorter than Gloria was, she generally seemed to be smaller than Gloria. She seemed so… fragile now.

"Hey what's up? You're not having fantasies about me, aren't you?" Annika asked with a smile on her face. Gloria realized that she was staring at her.

"What? No, of course not… wait, that sounded wrong. It's not like you lack anything, it's just…" Well, that turned awkward. She was stuttering like a teenager now. And she was pretty sure she blushed. She hoped that Annika wouldn't notice. That certainly wouldn't help her out of that situation.

"Oh, I get it. You still can't get over seeing me in my MEC suit?" Fortunately Annika guessed right.

"Yeah. It's just strange to see you like that while still remembering that other you punching robot to death." Gloria was relieved that Annika got the subject right… and didn't noticed her blush. Or did she? Gloria could swear that she saw some sort of spark in Annika's eyes. "You probably get that from everyone, don't you?"

"You got that right." Annika laughed. "You'll get used to it, everyone else did. Hell, even I had to get used to it. Guess it's hard seeing your normal self after carrying a gun that was almost as big as you."

"Mind if I ask about… you know, the augments?"

"Sure, it's not like I have something to hide." Annika said with genuine sincerity in her voice. "I'll admit, the operation wasn't the most pleasant thing in my life, but it was my decision."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, you know, it hurt for a couple of days after the surgery. They did add a set of ports that connect directly to my nervous system after all." She said as she pointed at one of her ports on her arm. Gloria had to admit that the ports were really blending in with the skin, if Annika didn't pointed at it she would probably never find it. "At least it's not like in the old days when they used to chop off your limbs."

"Yeah, it was pretty brutal back then. And how does it feel to 'drive' the MEC?"

Annika laughed. "I wouldn't call it driving, but I guess it's as good term as any. I have a power to move a few ton heavy suit of power armor and a wide configuration of weapons to boot. It requires quite a lot of concentration." She turned the shower off and headed for the lockers, and Gloria followed soon.

"My turn." Annika said. "I don't think I've ever met a psyker."

"You probably met a few." Gloria said as she began dressing up. "Some of us just don't go around advertising the Gift."

"Really? Why so? You can blow stuff up by just thinking about it, I'd say it's pretty damn impressive."

"You watched too much action movies. Very few are powerful enough to do the advanced techniques like mind control or rift and even then it leaves you utterly drained." She told her. "As for your other question, well… that depends on a person really. Some of us prefer to keep to themselves, some are outright people persons, some are in-between, as I said – depends on the person."

"And you?"

"I'd say I'm in the middle." Gloria said putting her shirt on. "I think I might be a little more sensitive than other people, but that's just my guess. We generally have better perception."

"That it?"

"Pretty much." Gloria said as she placed a hand on her stomach. "I think I'm going to raid a kitchen. Want to tag along?"

"Sure thing."

* * *

Time and place unknown

* * *

Reflections danced on a perfectly smooth walls and floors. A purple glow emanating from a circular orb filled the vast chamber with a dim light. It was perfectly quiet. Suddenly a heavy footsteps shattered the silence as Muton Elite approached the tall creature in a crimson cape and took a knee.

"Master." The Muton spoke in its bestial language. "We have news on the ship you sent to the…" the creature raised one of its hands silencing the Muton.

"You have failed me." An echoing voice stated. It was calm, but the Muton slowly gave into panic. "Explain yourself."

"Our ship has been attacked by the enemy…"

The being stared at the Muton. As if he tried to melt him down with a sheer fact of looking at it.

"Humans. They were in the sector. Our ship managed to shot down theirs, but they had reinforcements. Our forces had to pull back to…" The Muton froze and felt a grip on his mind. Grip stronger than ever. It felt the life slowly being drained from its body. "Master… please…" It let out its last, silent cry before it fell on the floor.

"You have failed me. You know the penalty for failure." The voice stated. Two other elites appeared seemingly out of nowhere. "Dispose of him." The two bowed and took the body of their comrade into the darkness.

"Humans." The voice said, with a tone of irritation. "If they shall oppose our glorious work, they will feel the wrath of the Collective." It said into the void. The other voices approved… but some… some were silent.

* * *

Planet Hulam  
Doran's Nebula

* * *

"The hostage situation at the Cortex BioTech R&D Center in the capitol have proved to be difficult to disarm." The reporter standing in front of the police barricade before a tall building kept talking. "If you're just joining us, my name is Patricia Raymond and we are live at the scene of what appears to be the greatest heist in recent years."

"It's not a problem." The man spoke, taking another drag from his cigarette. "A minor inconvenience at best." He said to the hologram projected on his wall.

"Couple of hours ago a group of extremely well armed men entered the Cortex BioTech R&D Center and took the personnel hostage." The reported continued her report.

"Is that so? Because it seems to me like you have a big problem on your hands." The hologram said with a tone of annoyance in his voice.

"Law enforcers quickly arrived at the scene putting the whole area under lockdown and tried to initiate negotiation with the group. When the police negotiator approached the building he was fired upon from automatic weaponry and from what my sources tell me, sustained a fatal injuries."

"I am telling you, the package has already been secured and there is nothing…" He paused for a moment before continuing. "Nothing that can stop us now."

"This better be true." The hologram's voice shifted. "If you fail me, you WILL face severe consequences." This time it was clearly a threat.

"Don't worry. I have everything under control." The man smiled at cut the connection.

* * *

Deresin's Hostage Rescue Team 8  
Squad leader: Allan Miller

* * *

"Alright people, you know what to do. While Teams 6 and 7 approach from the ground floor we and 9 go from the top. Check your corners, watch your fire and let's make sure that these people make it home to their families." Miller spoke with a seriousness on his face… not that anyone could have seen it under his balaclava.

"Prepare for deployment. 60 seconds." The pilot informed them.

"Get ready." Sound of safeties being turned off filled the transport. They had a chance to walk out of that building hands raised. Now Miller's men were going in guns raised.

* * *

Somewhere on Hula  
Doran's Nebula

* * *

"It all went according to plan." The man said taking a sip from his shot glass. "The packages is in my hands."

"Good." The hologram stated. "In that case we can prepare the Flux".

"Is it really the time?" Man's voice was filled with hesitation. "We're not ready Axis and you know it."

"Then you better make ready." Axis' voice was stone cold, like if he never felt anything. "There will be no more delays. Flux shall happen according to plan."

"You do realize that there has been a talk about war, right?" Hesitation left the man's voice, he was all business again. "And if that's true… it can put a wrench in our gears."

"You worry about things on your end. I will worry about the bigger picture." Despite all that was happening, no what was RUMORED to be happening Axis remained calm, almost like it was all a part of his grand design. "I'll leave the rest to you. It goes without saying, but…"

"Yes, I know." Man cut right in. "The consequences of my failure will severe."

"Then see to it that you don't fail me." Axis said, right before he cut the transmission.

* * *

XSS Drakken  
Mess Hall

* * *

The mess was crowded, as it was pretty much 12 o'clock, at least in Earth time. At least in her home. Gloria and the rest of her team, including recently transferred LT Hansen and "Slingshot" that haven't even introduced himself yet. At the very least the food was not too bad.

"So you're telling me…" Martinez said with a disbelief in his voice. "…that it was you, who took down The Decker? And you expect me to believe you?"

"Believe what you want old man. Your disbelief won't make it any less true." Slingshot said with a daring smile. "Took his head clean off from a moving gunship."

"Yeah, you keep saying that to yourself." Even Elizabeth was skeptic to the sniper's revelations. "Everyone knows that Decker died in a gang war."

"Yes, that is a official story, but only idiots believe in those."

Their argument was cut short when a young man approached their table. He was wearing a clean uniform, although Gloria couldn't quite tell what formation he served in based on his looks. He was however carrying a leather hip bag.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for…" He said digging into his bag and taking an white envelope from it. "Sergeant Gloria Van Doorn." He looked back up.

"That would be me."

"Excellent ma'am." He passed her the envelope. "I'll just need you to sign here." He passed her his datapad and she quickly returned it to him. "Very well ma'am. Have a pleasant day." He said and disappeared into the hallway.

"What was that all about?" Annika asked. The fact that Gloria received a traditional, paper letter caused quite the steer around their table.

"Let's see." Gloria said and opened the envelope with a knife. She took the letter out of it and read it silently. The minutes passed when Daniels spoke.

"So… what is it boss?"

"My commission." She said. "It's my god damned commission."

* * *

The ceremony wasn't too big, but Gloria liked that. She never really enjoyed the big, hours long ceremonies. Well… to be honest there was no ceremony. Now Gloria was again in the comm room.

"So what happens now?" She asked. "I don't suppose I'm on the desk duty from now on.

"Of course you're not." Her father stated. "You earned that promotion, that is one thing.

"And the other one?" Gloria gave her father the look.

"Don't look at me like that. I had nothing to do with it, I've only learned when you told me." He took a drag from his cigar. "The other thing is, that promotion of yours really clarifies things, don't you think? With LT Hansen not willing to take command it would be a bit strange wouldn't it be?"

"If you say so." Gloria was still a bit skeptic. People had a tendency to assume that she was getting a preferable treatment because she was Van Doorn. But the truth was that name didn't meant anything. In fact her father expected more from her, ever since she enlisted. She felt that she has to earn the name for herself. And she did… in a way.

Ian noticed the expression on his daughter's face. "Are you ok?"

"What?" Ian's question broke her trance, and not a moment too soon in her opinion. "No, I was just thinking."

"About…"

"Yeah, about that." She couldn't let it take a grip on her again. Not once more.

Ian sighed, he knew his daughter well enough to know that she doesn't want to talk about it. "Well, back to the matters at hand, there is one last thing you should know about."

"Which would be?"

"You're getting another squad member." Gloria raised an eyebrow. Another one? She had Martinez, Daniels, Elizabeth, Annika and "Slingshot" and she was about to get another person?

"Another one? That's pretty big team if you ask me."

"I know, but there's something about this kid. He's special."

"Special? In what way?"

"You'll know when you see him. He's name is Evans. Private Ronald Evans. He's a Psion."

"Great. The more the better."

* * *

"I don't think we can stop this."

"I don't think we can just idly stand by."

"He will not let our actions go unpunished."

"Of that I am certain… but this is our only chance."

"Are you sure they're even ready?"

"They have proven it in the past. I believe that they are."

"And what if they are not ready? This could mean the end for all."

"They are ready."

"Are you willing to bet everything on that?"

"What else do we have left, if not hope?"

"Then we should make our move."

"When the time is right, we will."

* * *

"Breach!" Daniels yelled as he pushed the detonator button. A shaped charge went off, blasting a hole in the wall. Martinez and Gloria went in, nailing hostiles one by one. Another door. Martinez was on point.

"Flash and clear, move when ready." He said steadily.

"Just like mom used to say." Gloria said with a smile. There was an awkward pause as everyone in the team looked at her with a mixture of laughter and confusion on their faces. "What?!" She asked. "My mother is SAS."

Martinez kicked the door, but it stood fast against his leg.

"Breaching charges." He said and gestured on Daniels. He approached the door and planted another charge on it, Gloria was standing by with a flashbang in her hand while Annika, without her enormous MEC suit, and Elizabeth held the rear, with "Slingshot" being on overwatch on the rooftop of the adjacent building.

Daniels hit the button yet again, Gloria threw a flashbang through a newly made door and they entered the room picking off disorientated hostiles. It all took just a few seconds. Finally when they stood amidst the carnage and corpses Gloria spoke.

"Ok guys, that's enough for today."

The reality began to shift around them and they found themselves back in the training room. Virtual Killhouse was no match for the real thing, like the one they had in Herford, but didn't really have a proper Killhouse.

A door hissed open and a young man approached Gloria. He made what can only be described as a bow. "My name is Private Ronald Evans. I was told to seek you out Lieutenant."

A smile spread across Gloria's face. She knew that there will be some things coming out of her promotion, but she really wasn't expecting this kind of behavior. No one was and everyone was giggling.

"Easy there Private. You don't have to bow, the salute will do."

"Yes Lieutenant." Evans said and made a proper salute this time.

"So, you're the new face in my team right?" Gloria asked and now she really understood what her father meant when he said that Evans is "special". She could feel the aura of psionic energy around him. This man was truly special. How would that play out, she wouldn't know… but she was genuinely curios.


	7. Chapter 6: Shooting Star

Chapter Six: Shooting Star

 _Something was in the air. Nothing really changed, but everyone could feel anxiety all around us. Everyone was nervous, but no one would let it be known to others. The war was on our hands. We knew it. They knew it. It just needed a time to sink in. And then they briefed us. Told us that that a war broke out. But it wasn't the war everyone was expecting, for our enemy was from beyond our world._

 _Fragment from "The Unsung War: The Great Conflict" by Peter Van Doorn_

* * *

12th of April 2115  
Gagarin Cluster  
XSS Drakken

"So, how long do you think they're going to keep us here?" Daniels asked. "I want to see some action."

"Jesus, what is with people wanting to get shot?" Gloria asked hopelessly when she saw Monika's smile.

"At least you got some action Alex." Monika said. "We came just in time to see the what you left behind you. Hey Gloria, how's your new Amp working out?"

"It's the biggest one I had so far." She said thinking about those bulky, handheld Psionic amplifiers most Psions received a day ago. Technically they allowed to push the power beyond personal limits, to the point where it's considered dangerous even. "I've yet to see it in action."

"So what, you'll be able to blow stuff up with your mind using it?" Annika asked curiously.

"I doubt it. That's the kind of stuff that The Volunteer would be able to do, but me? Out of my league."

 _Drakken's Bridge_

"Captain, I think you'll want to see this!"

"What is it?"

"Energy signature of some sort. It's heading towards the planet. I think it's a ship."

"Tell them that this area is off limits."

"Already tried sir, but it's not responding. I'm running a check on that energy signature… and done."

"And?" The captain asked impatiently.

"I have a match! Looks like… looks like an Overseer class UFO, it's heading planet side."

"Overseer class?" The captain tapped her commlink. "Fighter pilots! Report to your crafts! Combat alert! I want Talon Squadron in the air ASAP!"

* * *

 _Drakken's Hangars_

Pilots rushed to their crafts. Members of the Talon Squadron had two types of aircrafts in their disposal – a Firestorm fighters, that were developed by Dr. Shen's team during The Great Conflict, and a D-46 Space Eagle, a successor to the jet fighter designs used in early 21st century. Generally XCOM squadrons were composed mostly of D-46s with supplement of 2 to 3 Firestorms and Talon was no different. Finally everyone was in their seats, the hangar doors slid open, and elerium propelled crafts left the hangars.

"Alright crew, from wedge on me." J-Dog, leader of a Talon Squadron said on his radio. His Firestorm was a tip of the formation, with two remaining Firestorms as his wingmen and the four D-46s behind them.

"This is Drakken to Talon Wing, how copy? Over."

"This is Talon 1, ready you loud and clear. What are we looking for?" J-Dog said calmly.

"Our sensors picked an energy signature that matches the one of a Overseer class UFO. You're moving in to intercept the craft."

"Overseer class? Those things have some sort of optical camouflage correct?"

"Yes but we're locked its signature. Even if it is cloaked, you'll just fire at the signature."

"Roger."

It took them only a few minutes to catch up with their target. OR at least that's what J-Dog's HUD was telling him. "Don't fire until I say so." He said to the radio and locked onto the signature. He took a deep breath and fired the plasma cannon.

His aim was true and a second later a UFO appeared out of the void, precisely where he hit.

"We've got eyes on the bandit. Talon 2 and 3 on me, rest of you herd him towards the planet! And watch out back, I don't want any more UFOs popping out of nowhere behind us. Alright people weapons hot!" J-Dog said as he tailed the UFO. He hit the afterburners to close the distance. The alloys of the UFO's hull were gleaming in the light of the star. J-Dog looked up. Well, "Up" rather. Here in space, some of the basic concepts of atmospheric combat were irrelevant – the direction were relative, there was no clouds that could be used for cover. He watched as D-46s are forming around the UFO, maintaining the distance necessary for evasive maneuvers. But something was not right.

The UFO wasn't taking defensive actions. When it was flanked by D-46s it just stayed on course – towards the planet.

"Hold fire! Use the EMP if that bastards try anything!" J-Dog yelled to his radio. "Drakken, this is Talon 1. The UFO is complying, I repeat, UFO is not resisting. How copy? Over."

There was a long pause before he got his answer.

"Em… roger that Talon 1. Make sure it lands, ground teams will handle the rest."

"Roger that Drakken. Escorting target to the planet." How weird does that sounds? Escorting the UFO. He opened a channel to his squadron. "Ok guys, we're escorting the target and make sure it lands."

"What?! I thought we were supposed to shoot it down!"

"I know Two, I know. Seems like it's going to be one of those days."

* * *

 _Skyranger I  
Pilot: LT. Joe "Pequod" Barnes_

Tensions were high. Gloria had barely finished eating when the combat alert was declared. And then she got orders to gear up. Nobody knew what was going on as they rushed to the Skyranger. The words of a quartermaster still rang in her ears.

"Bring the Arc Thrower."

That could mean only one thing – There were still aliens on Aurora and command wanted them to take one alive to get some answers out of it. She looked on her team. Annika in her MEC V Rampart, Everyone else in the standard carapace armor, only this time they were sporting Gauss weapons, not the lasers. Evans was sitting opposite to her, she couldn't tell the expression on his face, since he was wearing a full face helmet.

"Evans! How are you holding up?" She asked.

"I'm good Lieutenant. You don't have to worry about me."

"Stay cool kid." Martinez joined the conversation. "First time in the field with new squad is always rough."

"Thank you sir!"

Then a transmission for the Drakken kicked in. It was the Captain.

"Alright people, listen up. Just a couple of minutes ago we've detected an energy signature. Turns out it's an Overseer class UFO."

There was a pause. They looked at each other shocked. An Overseer class?! That's the same class that was transporting "The Device" during the invasion.

"We have intercepted it and forced it to land. This is where you come in. Secure the site, neutralize all hostile contacts. Capture one if possible."

"I don't like the sound of that." Said Daniels. "He said 'forced it to land' not 'shot it down'. Seems shady as hell, if you ask me."

"Come on D. It's probably just a figure of speech." Elizabeth assured him.

"Only one way to find out." Gloria said. "Sir, what exactly do you mean by 'forced it to land'? Was it a crash, or controlled descend?"

"That means it landed on its own Lieutenant. I'll admit, the whole case seems suspicious to me. Don't take any chances. Your primary objective is to secure the landing zone. Nobody's going to cry if you don't bring any captives."

"Roger that sir! Coyote 1 out."

"This is… disconcerting." Martinez said. "Why would they land on its own? Especially when they had a squadron of planes on their tails?"

"Maybe they finally realized that we're too good for them and decided to make it easy for us." Slingshot jested. "I bet they're going to just form a line and let us take shots."

"The aliens aren't going to lay before you out of pity, like that nurse did." Annika said and everyone burst into laughter.

"LZ in 30 seconds!" Pequod said over the radio. They stopped laughing momentarily. There was no place for mistakes from here.

Back into the jungle. It's surprising how quickly the tide turns. For Gloria It feels like only yesterday they were fighting in the tight constrains of the wrecked Vigilance and now they were here to raid an UFO.

The team advanced and as the moved forward the radio came to life.

"Coyote 1, this Talon 1. Do you copy? Over."

"Roger that Talon 1, reading you 5 by 5. What's the situation? Over."

"We'll hit the UFO with a couple of EMP pulses, just in case they want to try anything funny. Stay clear."

"Copy that Talon 1. Holding position."

A seconds later something could be felt in the air. Something like a wave. The radio came online again.

"Coyote 1, this is Talon 1. Payload delivered, standing by."

"Roger that Talon 1." She gestured at her team. "Ok, people let's go."

The blue lights of UFOs energy fields appeared in sight. The aliens were patrolling around the UFO. Their pace steady and calm, like it was all part of a plan. Gloria gestured at Martinez and he threw a small ball at the UFO. When it feel on the ground their PDAs sprung to life.

"Multiple contacts. At least 5 Mutons, 2 Snakes, some more signal I can't get an ID on."

"Yeah, they brought Elites too." Slingshot said looking through the scope of his Gauss DMR. "Damn, these are some nasty looking bastards."

"And for good measure too." Martinez interrupted. "What's our plan Sarge… I mean Lieutenant."

"Don't worry about that right now." She said and looked back. Annika stayed behind a bit, that giant MEC suit of hers didn't exactly fit into the bushes. "We'll split into 2 teams. Daniels, Slingshot, you're with me. Martinez, take Annika, Liz and Evans. Go around the UFO, well do a simultaneous breach from both sides. Stay low and keep for now."

"Roger that." Martinez gestured at Slingshot and they both disappeared into the jungle. A couple of minutes later she got called on the radio. "This is Martinez, we're in position. Looks clear so far."

"Roger that Loco. Ok people line up the shots." There was about a minute of pause before Gloria shattered the silence. "GO HOT!"

* * *

"I have my doubts. Will they understand?"

"It is not in our power to know. They could and most likely will take hostile actions against our agents."

"And yet you insist on trying."

"I do."

"I see the potential in them as much as you do, but sometimes I have a hard time keeping up with your motives."

"My actions are dictated by the greater need. We cannot fail in our task."

"I am aware of that, just like everyone else. We all are. I just wonder if you… if we are taking the right approach."

"What are you trying to say?"

"What if they won't listen? What if they don't want to listen?"

"Then we'll be forced to find another solution."

* * *

"Keep up the pressure!" Gloria yelled as she slammed another magazine into her rifle and ducked down just in time to avoid the barrage of plasma from Elite's Plasma Heavy Weapon, or the "Hose" as it was referred to in the old days. "Martinez. What's your status?!"

"We have them pinned down, but we can't win a trench battle with them! We have to push on-"

"Martinez?! Talk to me Loco!"

"Holy shit. Evans just put that Elite down like nobody's business. Good work kid. Press this advantage!"

Daniels unleashed a storm of bullets at Elite's position and Muton's head exploded shortly after as Slingshot hit his mark. The giant body clad in the red and gold armor collapsed on the ground as they advanced into the UFO itself. The inside was well lit.

"Martinez, we're inside. Watch your fire. Meet us in the engine room on my right."

"Copy that. Moving."

Despite the firefight the inside of the UFO was… awfully quiet. The only thing disturbing the silence were their own footsteps on the metal floor. This silence was… unnatural somehow. Something was about to happen… and then it was as if all hell had broken loose.

Four Outsiders jumped out of nowhere assisted by two Elites. Gloria and her team dived into cover, but aliens had caught them with their pants down, practically out in the open. As Gloria ducked behind what looked like a computer part, she reached out to the nearest Elite, its mind filled by the mixture of rage and pride. The beast felt her presence and took steps to repel her mental assault with both thoughts and plasma fire.

"You will die!" The bestial roar echoed within Gloria's mind. The Elite somehow "vocalized" its channeled rage into words she could understand… well, maybe not words, it was more like a concept. "You have chosen your path human!" She tried as hard as possible to crush Elite's will. Make him make a run, but the creature stood fast against her efforts.

"Eat this!" Daniel yelled as he sent a plasma grenade flying at the Mutons. The green flames consumed them, yet despite all expectations Elites didn't gave in. The Outsiders took a hit, but they were already regenerating.

"Knock, knock!" Annika screamed as she launched herself from the enemy's flank, slamming her KSM into the nearest Elite. The servos hissed as she pinned the Muton into the wall. Martinez took aim and literally shattered one of the Outsiders and taking a good chunk of torso out of the another. Slingshot's DMR kept sending magnetically propelled slugs at its own, steady pace.

Meanwhile Evans was dealing with the remaining Elite. The hulking mass o flesh and alloys dwarfed him, yet he acted calmly. He dodged a massive armored fist that slammed into the floor just inches away from his foot and fired a short burst into the Elite's head. The Muton let out a furious roar and made another charge, but Evans dodged that one too. The he stared at the Muton for a while until he said a few words.

"Your flesh melts away." That sentence made shivers came down Gloria's spine. Evans just stared at the Muton and then it began screaming in rage and panic as if it caught on fire. It dropped on the floor and started rolling, only to stop a few seconds later.

"Keep the other one alive! Taser coming through!" Gloria yelled as Annika pinned the Elite to the wall. She approached the beast with Arc Thrower in hand, the rest all had their guns pointed at the Muton, should things go wrong.

"Clear!" Annika jumped back, letting the Elite free and Gloria pulled the trigger on the Arc Thrower. The Muton stretched back as he got hit by the high voltage with blue sparks almost visible on his armor. The Elite fell on the ground.

"Alright people, package is in tow." Gloria said, but then she felt something. She reached out for the Elite's mind and then she felt it. Another concept vocalized in her mind, but this time, there was no rage in it… it was something else… a sense of duty?

"For the Collective… and the Elders."

"GET DOWN! GRENADE!" Gloria yelled and let her instincts take the wheel as everyone scampered for cover. Annika assumed a defensive stance and everyone else dived down behind any cover there was available. Seconds later there was an explosion and green flames engulfed the Elite on the ground.

"Everybody all right?!"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. What the hell was that?!"

"Don't know, some sort of failsafe?"

"So what, now they rig themselves to self-destruct?!"

"Drakken Command, this is Coyote 1-1. The capture is a no-go, but maybe techs will be able to scrub something from the computers. Awaiting extraction. Over."

* * *

Autopsy report #2186-5d  
Performed by: Dr. Luke Campton  
Subject: Snake-like creature recovered from Gagarin cluster.

After completing autopsies of several of the specimen delivered to me, I've reached a very interesting conclusion. While we were already aware of the fact, that aliens were indulging in an extensive genetic modification processes, the subjects recovered by our ground forces show somewhat different trend. The extent of the modifications to the genetic structure of the specimen in question shows that it was a very careful modification, almost as if the aliens were intentionally trying to keep this specimen as close to their original genetic makeup as possible. Furthermore while comparing genetic material of the individual specimen I've spotted some variety between them. That leads me to believe that this particular alien species is not a product of a cloning process.

The specimen displays a physical characteristics similar to the reptiles that live on Earth, however I was unable to determine if it's caused by the evolution itself, or is it merely another product of genetic modification performed by the Ethereals. It seems that an aquatic environment is a native one to this specimen. The brain structure seems highly developed, leading me to believe that this creatures are highly intelligent and capable of experiencing and expressing themselves, much like humans do.

The last, but not least, I've taken a liberty of comparing the DNA samples to the ones that are already in our database. That lead to something what I can only describe as revelation – the genetic structure bears a striking resemblance to the specimen referred to as "Thin Man". I am sure that the creature our forces encountered is in fact a "Thin Man" prior to the extensive modification, of course. This is further confirmed by the presence of the exact same poison glands. Other characteristics, like a tongue capable of moving things even twice the weight of the creature itself can prove problematic to our troops in the field. The human-like arms are clearly a product of genetic engineering the purpose of which was no doubt to allow the specimen to use conventional weaponry, are a "structural weakness" so to speak.

Summary:

This creature is highly intelligent and capable of handling complex tasks, or even highly complex ideas.

There is some genetic diversity between individual specimen.

It's capable of using a lethal poison, pulling objects or even people with its tongue and binding it, as some of the snakes on Earth.

The extent of the genetic modifications was reduced intentionally.

* * *

 **Author's Note: So this chapter got out a bit later than I wanted it to... well for the next two months (April and May) it can be somewhat problematic... (graduation stuff, sorry). However I now have a twitter feed so... I'll try to remember and post something about how the stories coming alone.  
**

 **Jasina_ (I have an XCOM 2 guys as an Avatar and some good old fashioned Geoscpace room from our old base so you can't miss it. ;)  
**

 **Thanks for the understanding and as always, I'm looking forward to any feedback.**


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